Study Finds That Almost 90% of Americans Eat Discretionary Sweet Items Daily

10 Aug 2016 --- A new study has found that nearly 90% of American consumers eat discretionary food items every day, with most buying such food items from supermarkets, despite having access to the largest range of healthy food in the same shops.

An analysis of a nationally representative sample of American adults revealed that despite easy access to healthy foods in supermarkets, Americans' consumption of empty calories has not reduced. In fact, the study found that US adults buy most of their sugar-sweetened beverages and nutrient-poor foods in the same supermarkets where healthy food is available.

The study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked at data from 4,204 adults who reported their daily food intake in two, non-consecutive 24-hour periods in 2011 and 2012. 

The results showed that 46.3% of the of US adults consume sugar-sweetened beverages and 88.8% eat discretionary foods such as cookies, pastries, ice cream, cakes, popcorn and sweet confectionary daily.

Sugar-sweetened beverages add an average 213 calories per day to the diet, while discretionary foods add, on average, 439 calories per day. The largest portion of those products comes from supermarket shelves, the researchers report. 

"More than half of the sugar-sweetened beverages and two-thirds of discretionary foods are purchased in supermarkets and grocery stores," said University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Ruopeng An, who led the study. 

"Supermarket purchases of these items are about two to four times as large as all the other sources - fast-food restaurants, full-service restaurants, convenience stores, vending machines and other locations, combined."

“It is true that supermarkets also are the largest source of healthy food," continued An, "But we can't be naïve and think that people only purchase healthy food from supermarkets. They also buy all this junk food from supermarkets and grocery stores." 

Commenting on how consumers can change their diet, An said: “Adding fruit and vegetables improves the diet, but from the standpoint of obesity prevention, it is only helpful if people replace junk food with healthy food," 

He added: "We don't see from our data that the presence of a supermarket has a preventive effect on people's obesity or their junk-food intake."